Beijing said yesterday it would impose penalties on metal fasteners such as bolts and nails imported from the EU, in apparent retaliation to the EU’s extension of taxes on Chinese shoes.
The preliminary ruling will require importers of carbon steel fasteners from the 27 EU nations to pay a deposit beginning Monday, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site.
“[The ministry] finds that the European Union dumped carbon steel fasteners in China and China’s domestic carbon steel fastener industry suffered material damages,” the ministry said.
Importers will have to pay a deposit based on the difference — up to 24.6 percent — between the normal value of the fasteners and the cut price, the ministry said.
Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in another market at less than normal value.
The anti-dumping measures were imposed after the EU decided on Tuesday to extend punitive taxes on imports of Chinese and Vietnamese leather shoes — first introduced more than three years ago — by a further 15 months.
The measures, designed to protect European leather manufacturers from below-cost Asian competition, carry import duties of 16.5 percent levied on Chinese shoes with leather uppers and 10 percent on shoes from Vietnam. Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅) said Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied” with the decision and would launch a complaint at the WTO, a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site said on Tuesday.
“The Chinese government ... will appeal to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and take measures accordingly to seriously protect the legitimate interests of the Chinese industry,” Yao said.
European products “do not compete directly with Chinese products and it is meaningless to continue to impose anti-dumping measures against China,” Yao said.
Bigger manufacturers that make their shoes in Asia such as Diesel, Adidas and Puma, fought against the renewal of the shoe tariffs.
In a statement, the European Footwear Alliance, which speaks for brands including Diesel, ECCO, Levi’s, Timberland, Rockport and Hush Puppies, said the decision “lays to rest any lingering notion that the European Union still intends to fight protectionism.”
It said the EU’s “opaque trade policy will result in payment of anti-dumping duties well in excess of 1 billion euros [US$1.43 billion] for European footwear businesses, which will ultimately be paid for by EU consumers.”
Figures from the European Commission show that Chinese and Vietnamese shoes make up 30 percent of the EU footwear market.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
RSS